Compliance to the secondary prophylaxis and awareness of rheumatic heart disease: A cross-sectional study in low-income province of India

BACKGROUND: Rheumatic heart disease is a preventable problem and regular secondary prophylaxis and proper awareness about this disease among common people may reduce the burden of this disease in any region. OBJECTIVES: To find out compliance to the secondary prophylaxis of Rheumatic heart disease and awareness about this disease among common people of Bihar. METHODOLOGY: This was a questionnaire based cross sectional study to find out compliance to the secondary prophylaxis and awareness of Rheumatic heart disease, conducted at two tertiary care referral hospitals of Bihar. RESULT: 19/41 (46%) study participants were non-compliant to regular secondary prophylaxis. Most of the participants (34/42,81%) had poor knowledge of Rheumatic heart disease. Low socioeconomic condition was not a statistically significant risk factor for poor adherence to the secondary prophylaxis (odds ratio-5.29,95% CI- 0.55-50.08, P-0.11). Low level of education was not a statistically significant risk factor for poor awareness as compared to the participants with education of 10th standard or above (odds ratio 4.0, 95% CI- 0.65-24.24, P- 0.15). CONCLUSION: Approximately half of the participants of this study were non-compliant to the regular secondary prophylaxis of rheumatic heart disease and most of them had poor awareness of this disease. Ensuring regular secondary prophylaxis and improving awareness to Rheumatic heart disease among common people may reduce its prevalence in regions with significant burden of Rheumatic heart disease.